


Taste of Ordinary

by Novantinuum (ChromaticDreams)



Series: Brandishing the Star: A Crystal Gem's Guide to the Universe (SU shorts) [7]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Action, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Corrupted Gems, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gem Fusion, Gen, Implied Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Steven tells Connie about the Pink Diamond drama, because we didn't get this scene in canon and I'm sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 08:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20112232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChromaticDreams/pseuds/Novantinuum
Summary: "Connie, can we talk?"When a much needed moonlight conversation with his best friend turns into an attempted (and failed) "spring break" from all his responsibilities as a half-Gem, Steven finally comes to terms with the full truth of his heritage and all six thousand years of its consequences.Takes place between The Question and Made of Honor.





	Taste of Ordinary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which, late into the evening, Connie gets a concerningly terse call from Steven.

_ "Connie,” _ her mother calls from downstairs, “I should hope you’re planning on brushing your teeth within the hour…”

Caught in the act, Connie Maheswaran slams shut the novel she’s been obsessively reading— book 3 of _The_ _No Home Boys _series— and promptly rolls her eyes at her mom’s helicopter tendencies. “I know, I know!” 

Good grief, she only got out of the shower like ten minutes ago. So maybe she does get distracted by books in the bathroom for hours on end occasionally, so what? She twists the tap on, the exact sign her over-observant mother is waiting for, and slathers a generous layer of paste on her toothbrush. It’s nights like these she really hates this townhouse and its thin walls.

She’s smack dab in the middle of brushing when a familiar song rings from her bedroom. It’s one of her favorites, the melody bringing back fond memories of dancing and togetherness and trust, memories of a connection running far deeper than any ordinary human bond could dare to dream. Eyes blowing wide, (because there’s only one person in this universe that distinctive ringtone corresponds to), she hurries through scrubbing her last molars and wells up the biggest mouthful of minty fresh flavored spit she can manage. Desperately hoping her mom won’t get after her later for skipping the floss and mouthwash, she grabs the novel she’s been devouring and sprints into her bedroom as if a Gem monster is on her tail. 

Thankfully by the time she reaches her phone it’s still ringing. Depositing the book on her bedspread first, she bends to pick it up.

_ Steven Universe, _ a glimpse at the caller ID confirms, her contact proudly displaying an image of the young teen with his tongue out in an over-exaggerated show of mock disgust, as if he’s just smelt rotten eggs or something. (It’s a candid image they took a few months back and both laughed at until their sides hurt. Goodness knows what the context is, at this point.) Nevertheless, she can’t help the untamable grin that crosses her lips at the mere thought of her best friend. She hasn’t talked to him in a few days. Hopefully, since tomorrow marks the start of spring break and she doesn’t have to stress about studying for that honors algebra test anymore, she can hang out with him again. 

Gleefully, she presses to answer. “Hey you! What’s—“

“Connie, can we talk?” he interrupts, voice slightly hoarse. His gloomy tone is immediately both jarring and concerning.

“Uh—“ her heart sinks, trying with desperation not to let her focus stray to thoughts of everything that could’ve possibly gone wrong in Beach City in her absence, without her help, without her sword— “of course, always. What’s wrong?”

“No, I mean- face to face. Can you come over, maybe? I know it’s like, almost past your curfew, but—“

Connie glances at her alarm clock. Nine twenty six. Curfew at ten. She grimaces. With her parents, it'll probably be a stretch, but with the right argument ...

“I’ll ask,” she replies. With any luck, they’ll understand when she explains why she needs to go. “See you soon, hopefully.”

“Okay, see ya’.”

And with that he hangs up. Which is unusual, to say the least. No parting joke, none of his usual contagious enthusiasm, no waiting for her to say bye. She grips her phone tight, staring daggers at it as if at any second the screen might light up with another call or text, or… literally anything else. 

As feared, nothing. An uneasiness grows ever present within her, constricting her thoughts and infesting her mind like a thorny vine. If Steven were facing a physical Gem threat he would’ve said so, right? He would’ve specifically called for her backup. But in this case, she knows nothing. Not the cause of his distress, nor his physical condition, nor what he actually needs, and that almost scares her more than all the combat based danger she’s faced altogether. She peers out her window, catching a flash of cotton candy pink resting in the grass in the backyard. _ Lion. _ Originally Steven’s pet, the magical creature has grown strangely attached to her ever since her friend‘s unexpected trip (well, kidnapping) to Homeworld. It’s almost sweet, like he’s chosen to specifically watch over her in his absence. In any case, she’ll be able to warp to the temple on Lion’s back in no time. Her mouth presses into a thin line, resolute as she picks a warm minty green sweater off the floor to slip on over her pajamas.

“Hold on Steven, I’m on my way.”

Just in case, she nabs his mother’s sword from where last she left it, leaning against the corner of her room, and slings the scabbard’s thick leather strap over her shoulder. With a short yank to tighten it, she secures the ancient Gem weapon on her back.

Before she can turn to slip on some boots however, her bedroom door cracks open. She freezes like ice.

“Sweetie, your father downstairs has a quick question for yo-“ Her mother pauses mid sentence in the doorway, eyes narrowing when she notices the unmistakable pink scabbard slung across her shoulder. With a heavy sigh, she drops her face into her hand. “Connie…”

“I swear I was gonna come down and ask first!” Connie says.

Her mom’s gaze passes between her sword and the pleading expression no doubt etched within her own eyes. It’s evident from her scrutiny that she doubts her claim. But despite all this...

“Just- just go,” she mutters, roughly kneading her temple with her thumb. “It’s not like you have any school tomorrow. Text me when you arrive at Steven’s and when you’re coming back.” 

She blinks in surprise.

“Wait, really??”

_ "Yes,” _she emphasizes. “Goodness knows what I say won’t stop you when it comes to helping that boy. Now go to him before I think too much about the dangers of a young girl being out after curfew and change my mind.”

Grinning ear to ear, she wraps her arms like a vice around her now startled mother’s midsection, pressing her cheek against her heart. 

“Thanks Mom, you’re the best!”

With a wry smile she hugs her close in return, gently ruffling her hair. “Mmm hmm.” And with a slight laugh: “I’ll let your father know you said that. Be smart, please?”

“I will,” she says, and gives her one last emphatic squeeze before parting ways. 

Mission now unhindered by parental permission, and boots on her feet, her gaze shifts with newfound purpose to the small backyard outside her window where Lion rests. As if already intimately understanding her every intention, the creature raises his head and stares back with a soulful fervor. To be honest, Connie would not be surprised in the least to discover mind reading was one of his natural abilities all along. After all, he always manages to take them where they need to be. With any luck that includes tonight as well. 

She confidently romps downstairs with all her gear at the ready, the reality of just how much she still doesn’t know filling her with equal parts excitement and dread. That’s the funny thing about being best friends with someone who’s half human and magical: Danger or not, you never _ can _get tired of the thrill of adventure. 

* * *

As with most matters in his life right now, his ukulele has slipped ever so slightly out of tune. 

Wetting his chapped lips, Steven fiddles with the tuning pegs. With each string he hums the appropriate note as he twists the adjoined peg, plucking until the sounds match. It doesn’t take long until his favorite instrument is back in order, with perfectly pitched A, E, C, and G. He sighs wearily and flops onto his back on the broad hand he’s perched on, stretching arms and legs spread eagle. His ukulele gives a solitary huff of displeasure as it softly clunks against the smooth stone. 

If only he can discover some concrete way to realign everything else that has fallen askew, if only.

Earlier this evening he warped up to the temple’s hand for some quiet time, hoping to maybe put some more work into one of his many half-written songs. This hand is the perfect resting place because no one else comes up here super often except to do laundry! Now fourteen and a half years old, for Steven this form of escapism has settled into a comfortable routine. Sometimes the others refer to it as his version of ‘retreating to his gem.’ And hey, maybe in a metaphoric sense that notion isn’t too far from the truth, since he tends to retreat here after missions that are more emotionally grueling than usual. There is only one problem: being completely alone for the first time in a few days naturally leaves his mind wandering towards bleaker horizons he dares not explore. Mom was once Pink Diamond, yes. But as for the finer implications of that…

The young half-Gem turns his gaze up towards the distant stars in a futile attempt at distraction, catching the faintest glimpse of a meteor from this week’s shower streaking across the stratosphere before it finally burns up.

The truth is, he’s spent so much of his emotional energy trying to piece his family back together after the recent revelation that he hasn’t gotten the opportunity to consider what it means for _ him. _ After all, Pearl and Amethyst and Garnet aren’t the ones who just learned that they actually have a diamond in their belly. (And how exactly does that work with the more-human part of his anatomy anyways? He finally saw the full size and shape of his gem when he watched Mom poof in Pearl’s memory, and the facets of it jut inwards pretty deep. Wouldn’t that like… prod him in the guts, or something, or feel uncomfortable? Was he supposed to have noticed this years back?? He has so many bizarre questions about all this and no clue how or who to ask—!) For this reason, for once in his life the Gems are the last people he wants to confide in about his concerns. While Ruby and Sapphire aren’t a source of worry anymore— their relationship mended with some time apart and a heartfelt proposal— he’d hate to drag the mood down with more reminders of the past. 

So he left the house. Grabbed his ukulele and his phone, relocated up here. Initially he considered running over to the car wash. Maybe he can talk through his muddled thoughts with Dad, discuss things he hesitated to mention in Ruby and Amethyst’s company. Except his dad… he loved Rose. He claims Mom being Pink Diamond doesn’t bother him, that no one is entitled to someone else’s past, but what if he’s only saying this for _ his _credit? Softening the blow, treating him like glass like everyone else? What if Mom’s secrecy about this genuinely hurt him?

He can’t risk worsening the blow by forcing Dad to think about it more. But as much as he desires time apart from his family to reflect, it’s becoming troublingly clear that improvising melodies up here on his lonesome is doing nothing to settle his anxieties. 

Which is why he chose to call Connie. 

Connie, who is an outsider to all his family drama, who only knows of Rose through him. No personal connections like the rest of his guardians. Connie, who spent so much time as a kid observing people from afar that she can read the mood as clear as text on a page. Connie, whose sheer enthusiasm for things as varied as fantasy books and tennis and playing violin and _ Under the Knife _ and sword practice never ceases to delight him. Connie, who makes him laugh— _ genuinely _ laugh— pretty much every day he spends with her, the one person in this whole world he feels he can tell everything. All of this, and yet three days since they last talked. 

Three days since his entire perception of his heritage shifted under his feet like rocks crumbling to mere dust in the wind.

Steven wants her to know. If anyone can come close to understanding how upsetting an upheaval this is for him, it’s her.

His fingers seek out his ukulele with the same desperation as two halves of a broken gem, twitching to fill the tranquil almost-silence with music as a distraction to himself. Still laying on his back with the full majesty of the stars as his witness, he continues practicing the chord progression for a song he’s working on. 

_ “Can’t you see that we’re celestial? Extraterrestrial? And like a….” _ His hand fumbles on one of the strings, producing a sour chord. He cringes at the unexpected dissonance. Repositioning on the frets, he starts singing the last line over again. _ “And like a shooting star you brighten every midnight sky—“ _

“Steven?” Connie calls from the distance. He cuts off, a slight blush heating his cheeks as he immediately shoots upright to catch a glimpse of his best friend. Far below, she dismounts from Lion and drops solidly onto the shore. She wears a light mint colored sweater over her pajamas, and she’s brought her sword, the longblade secured in its scabbard and slung over her shoulder.

“I’m up here,” he says as he sets his ukulele aside, and waves at her from up on his stony perch. Connie follows his voice, scanning the beach with all the honed skill of a private detective before eventually locking eyes with him. She beams, and breaks into a wild sprint. 

“Steven!”

With grace and poise he pushes off the stone hand, willing himself by emotion’s sway to float the rest of the way down. The stiff breeze ruffles his hair as he descends. The shore and his friend grow closer and closer, the foundation of his world easing back into focus. By the time his toes meet the ground Connie is already there to (probably) hug the life out of him.

True to form, she about tackles him into the sand. The pair of them stumble a few steps together in what is nearly a dance to keep from tumbling over. Laughing in an exhilarating mixture of relief and joy, Steven wraps his arms tight around her, pressing his cheek against the taller girl’s shoulder. 

“Aaaugh, I missed you _ so _much, what happened?” she asks. “Is everything okay?” 

Visible concern tints her expression as she steps back, surveying the beach once more for good measure. Pearl has taught her well, that’s for sure. Thankfully, not a soul wanders these shores at this time of night apart from them.

“Yeah, we’re okay! For once there’s nothing actually dangerous out tonight. Sorry if I worried you about that, on the phone? I’m- I got kinda lonely out here and wanted to see you,” he admits with a spike of guilt that he’s caused her to fret so much. He runs his hand through his short curls. “Is... that all right?

Her offered grin is blissfully contagious. “Of course, ya’ big doof! Always. Hey, let’s go talk by the rocks.”

Before he can even open his mouth to agree she grabs him by the hand and pulls him along. And so they begin their journey around the temple’s perimeter, towards their familiar meeting spot. The spot is equally convenient as it is sentimental, since its close proximity to the cliff face shields then from both sun and wind, and is also where they first met. (His first bubble! Geeze, that feels like a lifetime ago.) 

On the way, they chat about the latest book of _ The No Home Boys _series that he loaned her, Steven being careful to avoid giving spoilers. Connie gushes about how she can’t put it down. It’s so good, she adds, that her incessant reading of it (even at the dinner table!) almost landed her in hot water with her mom! From there, the conversation drifts between fusion training plans for the next few months, the lunchtime debate club she’s considering joining at school when it starts again after spring break, and Pearl’s comedic misunderstanding of how to use a cell phone. (“Cell-u-lar phone,” he over enunciates just like she had, the two of them snickering like mad at how silly it sounds.) By the time they sit down in the cliff’s protective embrace, she curiously asks why he’d been so unusually quiet for the past few days. 

“Yeah, I’m sorry for basically dropping off the map for a while,” Steven says sheepishly, leaning back against the rock. “Wednesday was… pretty stressful, and then yesterday I went on an impromptu Wild West adventure with Ruby and Amethyst and my dad, and Amethyst was a horse, and as a cowboy you don’t exactly get great cell service, so…”

“Wait, _ Ruby?” _she exclaims, as she pulls the scabbard’s strap over her head. Gently, she lays the sword next to her in the sand. “Is Garnet- Ruby and Sapphire, are they okay?”

“Yeah, they’re fine. They’re actually getting married in a few days, and we’re gonna invite the whole town!”

“Oh wow, really?”

“Yeah, Ruby made a big proposal and everything!”

“That’s so exciting,” Connie says, dreamy smile brightening her face. “I love weddings!”

“I know, right? I can’t wait to start planning. Finally,” he says with a melodramatic flare and flourish that would make fellow actor Jamie proud. “A fitting use for the wedding aesthetic scrapbook I’ve been working on my entire life.”

She giggles at his antics. Her laughter is one of the best sounds in the world, one which only serves to egg him on. 

“Hey, you may laugh, but in truth…” He cups his face in his hands, and bats his eyelids. “I’ve secretly been but a wee romantic soul all along.”

“Oh believe me, it’s never been a secret,” she teases, playfully nudging his side.

His cheeks grow warm. In a heartbeat, all Steven can think about as he meets her eyes is how lucky he is to have her as his best friend, his jam bud, and in response his smile stretches so wide he feels he’s about to burst. He wonders if— no, _ hopes _that— she feels the same. In time their hands brush against each other as gentle and shy as a whisper. Sitting together under the stars’ constant and patient presence, his wide palm comes to rest over hers. In response, she curls her slender fingers tight around his.

The world around them grows lighter, more strikingly vivid, as an effervescent, tingling sensation he can never get used to spills out from his core, the promise of togetherness. Under his shirt his gem begins to glow. 

And then a bitter realization— the fact that any of his fusions will bear the burden of his stress too— sobers his innocent eagerness. He doesn’t want to dump all this on Stevonnie. He doesn’t want this to be the way Connie finds out. With a snap, the once blissful atmosphere fades, leaving him with a creeping anxiety churning deep in the pit of his stomach. Visibly disappointed, (because he can tell she knows this is a fusion he aborted), Connie purses her lips, pulling away as well. 

Idly, she begins to trace spiral designs in the sand. He bites at his lip as he watches, veins running cold with the insidious and consuming fear that by trying to protect her from this he’s only succeeded in hurting her more.

Which is why, even though logically he should expect it given her aptitude for people watching and sensing the mood, her next words are so surprising.

“Don’t get me wrong, I always love talking to you about whatever, but why’d you really call me over?”

“I—“ he cuts off for a second, almost shocked into silence by this reaction, by the fact that she doesn’t comment on the attempted fusion instead. “Like I said, it’s been a while, and—“

“It’s just that you- you sounded pretty upset on the phone,” she says, gaze focusing on some abstract point past the tides. “And for Garnet to split up in the first place? She never unfuses for no reason.”

“It’s not- we can get to that later, it’s fine!” he insists, attempting to inject a more chipper attitude into his voice. “Anyways, you’ve been to other weddings, right? Think you can help brainstorm ideas?”

“Steven…”

“Also, on a scale of one to five, how feasible do you think it’d be to make big balloon floats of Ruby and Sapphire for the reception decor? Be honest!” 

“Steven, please. Can’t _ you _be honest? You’re my best friend, and I can tell something’s bothering you. I wanna help however I can.”

He swallows. Her gaze is unwavering as she speaks, resolute, with stars glinting in her irises under the light of the rising moon. He has no doubt she’d walk alongside him to the far reaches of the cosmos if he asked, to Homeworld itself— and for her sake he often wishes she wouldn’t. But despite his hesitation, he has to tell her at some point. Why shouldn’t that time be now?

“Fine, okay, okay,” he sighs, dropping the act. “It’s just… really complicated. I wanted to tell you first thing, but we were having fun, and then- gahhh, I ruined it, didn’t I?”

A small hand reaches over and squeezes his shoulder.

“Hey. Don’t worry about it,” she says with a reassuring smile. “Talking about complicated stuff is what friendship’s for, right? Now, what’s on your mind?”

“It’s… about what happened on Wednesday. Something I discovered.” Steven nervously shifts in the sand, moving his legs out from under him. “You know all that stuff about the Diamond Authority on Homeworld, and the Gem War, and how my mom shattered Pink Diamond to stop it?”

She nods in confirmation. His face flushes. It’s now or never.

“Well, as it turns out, my mom actually kinda—” his voice drops to barely a whisper— _ “was _Pink Diamond.”

He hugs his knees tight to his chest as the fated truth finally sloughs off his tongue, staring out at sea with an almost blank expression. The tides are coming in. The ocean laps against one of the temple fusion’s fallen hands that’s lodged deep in the sand, slowly grinding away at its stone bit by bit, year after year. Unyielding. The silence between them doesn’t last long, of course, but living in the moment it stretches into an infinity just as unimaginable as those tides. 

_ “Oh,” _is Connie’s initial response, and somehow that single syllable conveys more raw meaning than any other string of words could dare to dream.

_ "Yeah. _So, that’s a thing now.”

“That’s… that’s pretty big.”

“So was she,” he responds with a soft laugh. 

“You _ saw _her?”

“Yup! Well, in a memory... inside Pearl, inside Pearl, inside Pearl, inside Pearl inside Pearl’s pearl,” he says, slowly counting off each Pearl on his fingers. Seeing Connie’s blank expression, he bashfully rephrases. “I went inside her head. They were in that palanquin, the one in Korea, and I- I watched my mom shapeshift back into Pink Diamond. Into her true form.”

The two fall back into a comfortable stillness as all this information sinks in, not only for Connie but for Steven too. He’s still processing it himself. Talking out loud instead of letting it linger in his mind like stagnant water helps. 

Her mouth bobs open. He follows her gaze to his stomach, knowing exactly what she’s about to ask.

“Your gem, then. That means you’re also—?”

“A diamond,” he completes, pressing his palm against his belly, feeling the familiar faceting of his gem under his shirt. “Yeah. I guess it explains a whole lot, though! The healing spit, bringing watermelons to life, weird dream powers, floating. The Gems always said no one but Mom was able to do all that, not even other Rose Quartzes.”

“Wait a minute,” Connie says, eyes widening. She jabs her finger at him, brimming with barely contained excitement. “The dream!”

“The... dream? Which one?”

_ “The _dream, remember? The really weird one we had on the jungle moon, in the diamond base! We dreamed about Pink Diamond. All that suddenly makes so much more sense now.”

“Oh. _ Oh! _That dream! Yeah, it really does,” he smiles. “It’s still weird. All of it. But it’s also kinda a relief? That she didn’t really shatter someone, I mean.”

She cups her chin in her hands, resting her elbows on her knees. Her brow furrows. He can almost see the steam pouring out of her ears, interlocked gears grinding against each other as she attempts to puzzle through the next logical question.

“So what really happened?”

Steven turns to face her directly as he attempts to make sense of it all, his thoughts spilling over each other until they emerge as nothing but a fluid stream of consciousness:

“The gist is that my mom didn’t want Earth to be destroyed so she disguised herself as Rose Quartz and fought her own armies and then when the other diamonds wouldn’t let her stop the colonization she fake-shattered herself with Pearl’s help to stop the war entirely but it totally backfired and the rest of the diamonds corrupted all the other Gems on the planet in revenge for Pink’s fake-death and the only reason I never knew this before was because her last order to Pearl was to never tell another living soul about it.”

By the time he finishes, Connie’s eyes are blown wide.

“Wow,” she breathes. “That’s... a whole lot to take in at once.”

“Yup.”

“So... how are you feeling about all this?“

“I- I don’t know anymore,” he says with a wide shrug. “Confused? It’s just- all my life I thought I was one thing, and then suddenly ‘surprise, Steven! You’re actually a diamond?’ Heh. Geeze.”

With a weak laugh, he runs his fingers through the short curls at the nape of his neck. His expression sobers again.

“Honestly,” he admits, “I’m more worried about how everyone else is handling the news.”

“Oh yeah, are they okay?”

“I think they are now. But Garnet took it so hard she unfused, and even though I think she’s kinda relieved it’s no longer a secret Pearl’s been treating me like glass, and Amethyst... well, is Amethyst, so she’s mostly fine, but now she seems to believe it’s her job to make me feel better, which it isn’t.”

Connie listens patiently as he gets all this off his chest, these tumultuous thoughts he hasn’t had the time or the courage to vocalize before. Now more than ever he’s so thankful to have such a close friend. 

“My dad seems okay, thankfully. But I guess this all got me thinking... I really can’t escape any of this. All my mom’s decisions are just gonna keep following us, and following us, and it feels like I’m the only one who’s doing anything to patch things up. I’ve been trying so hard to hold everyone together all this time that now it’s like _ I’m _the one falling apart! But I dunno,” he says with a heavy sigh, looking with yearning back towards the ocean as if seeking an answer to a question he hesitates to ask aloud. He feels his hair ruffle in the throes of faint coastal breeze. “Sometimes I wonder if that’s just me being selfish.”

He grips the sand, fingertips scouring shallow ridges in the loosely packed, granular surface. Now that he’s admitted one of his biggest fears— let the words slough off his tongue into actuality— he doesn’t feel any better, more like an exposed nerve. A wave of guilt shoots through him, guilt that he’s burdening her with this in the first place, that he can’t always be the bright-eyed, optimistic Steven everyone expects, that he—

“I don’t think that’s selfish,” Connie says.

The tension in his hand fades. 

“It sounds like you’re wanting some space to take care of yourself, that’s all. Self care is super important.”

A familiar grounding presence meets his shoulder, and he turns to meet his best friend face-to-face. He’s welcomed by an unwavering smile, and eyes glistening with an honesty he isn’t sure he always deserves.

“So maybe what you need,” she finishes, scooting a bit closer to him, “is… a bit of time away from everything that’s making you stressed?”

“Yeah. _ Yeah,” _he agrees with a slight crack in his voice, cheeks heating as they sit in such close proximity. “That sounds really nice right about now.”

“It’ll be like a mini vacation!” she says, and pauses in thought. She enthusiastically jabs her finger towards him, realization coloring her features. “Hey, kinda like your very own spring break, just like me!”

Mood lifting considerably at the idea, he squishes his face with a loud, drawn-out gasp. “Oh my gosh, we’ll finally be spring break buds! You’ll be on break from school, and I’ll be on break from all the usual stuff like corrupted Gem missions, mortal danger, and being kidnapped! It’s perfect!”

An indiscernible emotion flickers across her eyes at that last bit, so subtle he almost doesn’t catch it. “Yeah, um—“

“Hmm, but where should I _ go?” _he muses out loud with barely a feather ruffled. “I can’t exactly stay at my house, because it’s supposed to be a vacation. Dad’s too close. Mask Island is too… watermelon-y. The barn’s in space. I guess I could find a motel…”

As he ponders the mystery of where he could go vacationing, Connie stands to her feet with solid confidence. She picks up her sword and slings its leather strap across her shoulder. She then extends a hand to him, a silent but unquestionable request. The damp, malleable sand compacts under his sandals as he stands as well. She grins conspiratorially. 

“Come on, I know exactly where you can go.”

Giggling, her grip on his wrist increases, and she breaks into a sprint across the shore, pulling him along for the ride.

“What-a who-da _ hey??” _he cries out in surprise, almost stumbling over his feet. “Where the heck are we—“

“To Lion!” she says, gaze locked on the familiar shock of cotton candy pink resting just around the bend. “I thought… maybe you can stay with me!”

They zoom past the first of the half-buried stone hands, through its rigid, unshakable shadow. Steven always thought it strangely intimidating, even if not intentionally so. He purses his lips. Hmm, how relevant to his current emotions on Dr. and Mr. Maheswaran. 

“That’d be super fun, but. D’ya even think your parents are gonna allow that?”

“I’m—“ her stalwart confidence wavers, their pace slowing as they finally reach Lion’s side— “not sure, but it’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

She gives Lion a quick scruff behind the ear. The magical creature leans into her affectionate touch, his chest rumbling with a deep purr. The sight makes Steven feel all floaty inside. He’s genuinely happy the two of them are that close and trusting of each other.

“Good enough for me!” he says. “Let’s do it.”

Connie’s excitement at this— while not explicitly voiced— nearly bubbles over the brim like soda fizz, as if the mere idea of him sleeping over is held in greater anticipation than even the upcoming season finale of her favorite show. With practiced grace, she slings herself onto Lion’s back. In time he rises onto all four feet, as regal in his leisurely nature as ever. It’s a silly observation in the long run, but he can’t help but admire how the mint green of her sweater and the pale blue of her pajamas stands in perfect contrast with the lion’s wild pink mane. His best friend offers her hand.

He begins to reach out, when his previously wandering thoughts land on a pertinent reminder. His eyes blow wide.

“Wait, I need pajamas! And also,” he says, eyeing his house, and the light still on inside, “I should probably let everyone know where I’m going before I completely disappear from town for the night? The last thing they need right now is something else to worry about.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a wise idea. Also good reminder, I need to text my mom.”

As she reaches into her pocket for her phone, he begins his short jog up the hill to the porch. He pauses before he meets the splintered wooden rail by the stairs, turning back to call out his parting message.

“I’ll just be a few minutes, okay?”

She waves him off. “Okay! No worries. Unless Lion has secret lion plans, I’m not going anywhere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had the first chapter of this burning a hole in my pocket for over half a year. The story has two more (long as hell!) chapters. Chapter two is about half complete. (already well over 5K.) Chapter three is fully planned out. I'll be working to finish this real quick in between chapters of my other fic, Crack the Paragon. Fingers crossed that finally releasing this into the world will be the fire I need to do so XD
> 
> Other characters and tags will become relevant in the next two chapters.
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> _
> 
> UPDATE as of 9/20/19: I have reworked this whole fic so it is in present tense, as my brain doesn't seem to want to work in the past tense it was originally written in. Hopefully this will mean I'm able to finish this story far faster now. I have over 8K written of chapter 2 and 3 already, but have a few gaps to fill.
> 
> Also, as a quick note because I've seen a lot of hopeful comments about it and I don't wanna sway you into thinking this story will be something it's not, this story won't deal with Stevonnie meeting Connie's parents. Sorry, but that's not what I had in mind when I conceived this. I do have ideas for a story like that, but for this one in particular I didn't wanna involve that in the plot because my intention is for this to be as canon compliant as possible- and as far as we know within canon, Stevonnie has not officially met Doug and Priyanka yet. 
> 
> Much thanks for all your support, though! And I hope you'll still be excited for the mystery of what's to come.<3


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